In The End, it Doesn't Matter
by Quicksilver Maximoff
Summary: Pietro and Lance pairing. Pietro desperately wants to lead a normal life, though to do so, Lance would have to leave him be. Confusion ensues in a fit of emotions, and someone dies, as the result of a car accident.


Lance woke up, as beams of light shot through the window and scattered across his face. He rubbed his eyes with his free hand; his other was wrapped around Pietro, who was lying across his chest. Lance watched him for a bit and smiled to himself, a smile that he only brought out around Pietro, when he was truly happy. Pietro woke up moments later and looked at him, pouting some as he frequently did in the mornings.  
  
" It can't be morning already, can it?"  
  
Lance laughed slightly at the expression on his face and nodded some. " Yeah, it's morning, and we have to get up if we're going to go to school. "  
  
Pietro would have pleaded with Lance to just stay home and not go to school, but he unfortunately knew that Lance took his education fairly seriously. He wanted to get somewhere in life.  
  
Lance took Pietro's hand, running his fingers along the inside of the white- haired teens palm. " And what do we have here?" he asked, pointing out the freckle that was directly in the middle of Pietro's palm. Pietro yanked his hand away, sliding off the edge of the bed as he did so. He looked at Lance with annoyance.  
  
" That-stupid-freckle-you-always-harass-me-about,-alright" Pietro blurted out, with an almost inaudible quickness to his voice.  
  
" Alight, alright, jeeze. Sorry I mentioned it. "  
  
The two got ready, Pietro obviously being the quicker of the two, and then headed off to school. They rarely saw each other and to their dismay, had no classes together. The only time they would see each other was at Lunch. At the end of fourth period, both of the mutants headed to lunch. Lance had arrived first and had managed to get his lunch and take a seat, before Pietro arrived. Glancing around as he entered the lunchroom, Pietro noticed Lance waving him over. He headed to the table with a sigh, not seeming to be his usual cocky and arrogant self. Lance tilted his head, examining his young companion " What's wrong" he questioned, " aren't you going to get something to eat?"  
  
" Nothing's wrong" Pietro responded, with a dim and lifeless tone to his voice " I'm just not hungry, alright?"  
  
Lance merely nodded in response, failing later in various attempts to get Pietro to say what was actually on his mind. He seemed distant and cold, not at all what Lance was used to. Not what he had fallen in love with. " Please Pietro? I just want to help you out."  
  
Pietro stood up, shouting loudly " I said I'm fine!" He abruptly marched out of the lunchroom, as nearby students stared at both him and Lance. The day continued on, neither one of them seeing the other until school had ended. Lance drove Pietro home, as he usually did, though Pietro was strangely quiet. " Would you just tell me what the hell is wrong?" Lance commanded.  
  
Pietro said nothing in response. Upon their arrival back at the boarding house, Pietro got out of the car and zipped up to his room. Lance followed, stomping angrily behind him. Freddy, Todd and Tabby merely stood in the kitchen, not saying too much about what was going on.  
  
Lance found Pietro sitting on his bed, staring at the ceiling. " Tell me what the hell is wrong with you!" Lance was nearly screaming, as he was quickly becoming angry.  
  
" I'll never have a normal life Lance. " Pietro was speaking with a certain calmness that he wasn't exactly known for.  
  
" What? That's what you're worrying about? A normal life?" He shook his head lightly and sighed, " None of us will Pietro, and we've talked about this before. It's just what being a mutant means." He leaned in, attempting to kiss Pietro, though the younger boy pulled away.  
  
" I don't mean about being a mutant. I mean about being with you. "  
  
Lance looked at him in shock. Sure, Pietro had been apprehensive about the two of them being together when it first happened. He didn't want to admit that he was gay, but they were long past that. " Pietro, what are you talking about?" He said harshly, once again becoming angry.  
  
" I was just sitting in Chemistry, looking around. You know how boring it is.. heh.. " He laughed with a nervous shake to his voice. " But half the people in there were couples. They'd be sitting with their boyfriend or girlfriend doing the stupid labs. It was nothing special really, but I just realized it. Us being together is just one more thing that separates us from being normal Lance. "  
  
Lance merely stared at him, feeling confused and hurt. " So. after all of this time together, you just.. want to leave me?" He clenched his fist tightly, as a slight tremble erupted in the house. " I.. I love you Pietro."  
  
Pietro shook his head " Sorry-I-can't-say-the-same" he blurted out. He got up off the bed and headed toward the door, though he was stopped when Lance shot his arm out and grabbed Pietro by the wrist.  
  
Pietro turned around, giving a slight whimper at the pain of Lance's grasp. " Let go of me Lance! That hurts!"  
  
Lance only responded by squeezing Pietro's thin wrist even tighter. He watched the expression on Pietro's face. He looked as if he might actually be scared. Pietro's icy blue eyes darted around the room as he tugged at arm, trying to free it from Lance's grasp.  
  
" Listen to me Pietro" he said firmly " you can't jus.."  
  
" Shut up!" Pietro hissed, cutting him off in mid sentence. " I don't have to listen to a damn thing that you say!"  
  
Lance's face grew red with anger. He threw Pietro to the ground, still holding tightly onto his wrist. As soon as the white-haired teen hit the floor, Lance jumped on top of him, one knee on each side of Pietro's waist. " Listen to me dammit!" he screamed, pinning Pietro's arms to the ground.  
  
Pietro's thin form writhed beneath Lance, squirming and struggling to get away. He didn't get away though. Lance was stronger than him, which made things simple enough. Pietro stopped struggling after a few moments, only to stare up at Lance's face. " Let me up Lance" he demanded, speaking words that seemed to be emotionless.  
  
" No Pietro." Lance stared down at him, wondering how Pietro could just give up like this. He thought they were in love, now Pietro just wanted to leave. " I won't let you discard me, like some piece of trash. Don't you care about us at all?"  
  
Pietro gave him no response to the question.  
  
In what seemed to be a fit of anger, Lance lifted Pietro's back up, then slammed him down on the hard, wooden floor. Pietro yelped out, pain shooting all through his back " Stop it Lance! That really hurt!" he cried, no longer able to remain silent. Lance squeezed harder on Pietro's shoulders, knowing that the soft skin covered by his shirt was surely being bruised. Pulling Pietro up again, he slammed him back down once more.  
  
Pietro screamed, " Lance! Please! You're hurting me! Please stop!"  
  
Lance loosened his grip, looking down at Pietro. There was no question now, he was truly afraid. Lance's face suddenly became pale. He didn't want to hurt Pietro; he hadn't even realized what came over him. He frowned as he looked at Pietro, seeing the tears that were filling his eyes. He slid one leg over, kneeling beside his companion. " Pietro.I." He had intended to apologize, but before he could get the words out, Pietro had zipped up from the floor, downstairs, and outside.  
  
Flying down the street, tears rolled off of Pietro's cheeks, splattering against the ground as fell. ~ The great Pietro Maximoff~ he thought ~ reduced to tears over something like this.~ He was determined to lead as normal of a life as he could. Even if that meant being without the person he cared the most for.  
  
Lance stayed in Pietro's room for quite some time, regretting what he had done. He brought himself out eventually, wondering when Pietro would return. Hours passed, then days, then nearly a week. Lance had stayed home from school the first day that Pietro didn't return, though he eventually convinced himself to go. Becoming quiet, both at school and home, Lance hated himself for what he did. Whatever rift there was between them, he had only made it worse by attacking Pietro. On the sixth day of Pietro's absence, there was a sudden knock on the door. Lance rushed downstairs to open the door, thinking that it would be Pietro there, that he needed to knock because he had been gone for so long. He unfortunately was being too much of an optimist. As he opened the door, a police officer stood in front of him, holding his hat to his chest.  
  
" I'm officer Burkowsky. Does a Pietro Maximoff live here?"  
  
~ What's going on~ Lance thought ~ Is he in some kind of trouble?~ He stared at the officer for some time, before giving a simple nod.  
  
" We were informed that he was truant from school for the last week. Has he been here?"  
  
" No. " Lance said sadly " I don't know where he is"  
  
" Well.. I don't know how to say this" The officer responded. " But there was an accident on highway 79. Someone was killed"  
  
~ Why is he telling me this? It can't be Pietro. He's so damn fast he doesn't even have a car. ~ " Yeah. So what?"  
  
" I'm afraid that a semi-truck slammed into someone who was crossing the highway. The driver claimed that the person came out of nowhere. Just sort of appeared, you know?" The officer gave a somewhat of a nervous laugh. " Sounds crazy, but the fact remains that someone still died. I'm afraid that it may have been Pietro. "  
  
At this point, Freddy, Todd, and Tabby were all standing behind Lance, staring at the officer. None of them could seem to believe what was being said. After a few moments of silence, the officer spoke up once again " I'm going to need to have one of you come down and identify the body"  
  
An awkward silence again took its reign, before Tabby choked out a few words " We'll all go. "  
  
And so they did. They piled into Lance's Jeep, following the officer to the Bayville hospital. Lance was barely able to control the car, nearly swerving off of the road, several times. Hundreds of thoughts invaded his mind. ~ It's my fault Pietro died~ he eventually concluded. ~ If I hadn't hurt him. If I would have just let him know that I would be there for him..~ His train of thought ended as they reached the hospital.  
  
The officer got out of his car and motioned them into the hospital. The four of them followed, advancing with the officer toward the morgue. It seemed like an eternity to Lance, before they finally reached the small metallic looking room. They went across rows and rows of what seemed to be cabinets. Merely looking like handles were jutting out of the walls. The officer told one of the men working there, that they were looking for Pietro Maximoff. The man nodded, taking the four teenagers a few more steps down, then tugging on one of the handles and pulling out a long tray.  
  
The tray contained a body, with a white sheet over top. " The body was mangled in the accident. It may be.. hard to look at. "  
  
With that, the man pulled down the sheet down to the person's chest, exposing the upper half of the corpse, which was nearly unrecognizable. The only thing that Lance could see, that would have truly given it away, was that the body had a head of white hair. Lance broke out into tears.  
  
" It's not him dammit! It's not him!"  
  
Freddy eventually pulled Lance away from the tray, despite his attempts to reach for it. He screamed once more and clenched his fists, sending seismic wave through the hospital, which was rather destructive. The corpse fell off of the table as the sheet slid away as well, revealing the lower half of the body. For how mangled the upper half was, the lower was twice as bad. Lance screamed and cried staring at the body, until his voice became extremely hoarse. Freddy eventually grabbed him up, pulling him out of the small metallic room. Todd followed, and Tabby after that, only after she had told the morgue worker, that the body was indeed Pietro Maximoff.  
  
Tabby met the others by the car, seeing that Freddy was saying something to Lance  
  
" You better give me the keys Lance. You don't look like you're in the shape to drive."  
  
Lance handed the keys over, with no opposition. He climbed in the back of the Jeep, watching as the others climbed in as well. As Freddy started the car and began to drive home, Lance seemed to calm down a little. He was no longer screaming, but crying and having an occasional sniffle. He began to think about all he and Pietro had done together, all that they had went though. As they arrived closer to home, he remembered that morning, seven days prior. He had woken up, finding Pietro still asleep on his chest. ~ I'd give anything to be able to wake up like that one more time. One more morning with his warm body curled around mine~ he thought ~ One more morning where I could run my fingers across that freckle that he hated.. so .. much. ~ He suddenly remembered, that when the tremor had knocked the body off the table, he had seen his hands. He didn't remember seeing any freckle on his palms.  
  
" Stop the car!" he cried, " We have to go back! It's not Pietro back there!"  
  
Tabby shook her head, thinking of how he had just gotten done doing this at the morgue. She reached over and gently grabbed his arm, a few tears falling down her face. " Please Lance, you know it was him. You're just making it harder on yourself. "  
  
He continued to scream as the car pulled into the driveway " No! No! It's not him! It wasn't on his palm! I'm telling you!"  
  
At this point, seeing as how Lance was being rather delirious, Freddy took it upon himself to pull him out of the car and drag him back into the house. As soon as they were all in, Freddy stood in front of the door, blocking the way, so that Lance couldn't exit.  
  
Lance immediately ran up and punched Freddy in the jaw, though it seemed to have no effect on him. " It wasn't him you bastard! Get the hell out of my way!"  
  
" It wasn't who?" a voice called out from the living room.  
  
Lance stopped and turned his head, seeing the speed demon himself sitting in the living room. His jaw nearly dropped to the floor, as the four of them stared at Pietro.  
  
" What-the-heck-is-going-on-around-here?" I-leave-for-a-few-days-and-you- all-fall-apart?"  
  
Lance bolted into the living room. Pietro scooted back on the couch as he came in, afraid of being slammed around again. But when Lance got to him, he didn't hurt Pietro, or yell at him. He merely hugged him.  
  
" I'm sorry I hurt you Pietro," He said quietly. ~ Thank you God, for letting him be alive!~  
  
After a moment Pietro began to hug him back " Yeah well. I-Guess-I'm-sorry- for-saying-that-I-wanted-a-normal-life. I'd.. rather be with you."  
  
Lance began to cry again, pulling Pietro close to him.  
  
" What's the deal?" Pietro asked, " You don't have to cry about it."  
  
Lance only stated that he would tell Pietro the story later. He figured Pietro would get a kick out of supposedly being dead. " Can we just go to bed now Pietro?"  
  
Pietro nodded, following Lance upstairs, as the others stood quietly at the entryway, still in disbelief of what had happened.  
  
Lance crawled into bed, motioning for Pietro to follow. As he did, Lance pulled Pietro tightly to his chest and smiled contently, gently running his fingers over the inside of Pietro's palm.  
  
" I love you Lance" he stated simply.  
  
" I love you too Pietro" 


End file.
